Almost all households, businesses, schools, churches and healthcare facilities have one or more plungers for clearing clogged toilets. While a toilet plunger is a necessary bathroom accessory, the conventional rubber plunger is ineffective, particularly when fecal matter to be cleared is hard and compacted.
The prior art has put forth several designs for drainage cleaning tools. Among these are:
U.S. Pat. No. 6,898,807 to George Tash describes a drain plunger that snakes clogged drains at the same time the drains are being plunged. The plunger includes a pleated bellows forming a head section which is removably coupled to a handle. In one embodiment, the head and handle sections are jointly configured to release air from within the bellows while the plunger is being inserted into a basin filled with wastewater, thereby reducing or eliminating potential spillover. A flexible elongated snake disposed within the interior of the bellows enters the drain as the plunger bellows is compressed. The snake is capable of dislodging and breaking up obstructions within a drain. The snake also may have a hook at its lower end that is capable of snaring items causing obstructions within the drain. These features combine to create a plunger that provides a superior ability to effectively clear clogged drains.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,694,822 to James Murphy describes a device for cleaning pipes such as those incorporated in sewage systems, and more particularly, relates to a device especially adapted for removing objects or obstructions lodged within household drain pipes or the like. The device includes an elongated, flexible shaft having a handle at one end and having an auger projected as an axial extension of the other end of the shaft. On the other end of the shaft, a plurality of gripping tines of springable characteristics is mounted, said tines being so arranged relative to the auger as to be capable of being shifted into engagement with an object into which the auger is threaded or against which the auger abuts. On the shaft, an elongated, flexible housing is provided in which the shaft is both rotatable and longitudinally shiftable. A bell like cage is mounted upon the housing and is so arranged relative to the tines as to be adapted to cam the tines inwardly into gripping engagement with an object to be removed, responsive to relative longitudinal movement between the shaft and housing. Rotation of the shaft engages the object with the auger while longitudinal movement of the shaft relative to the housing shifts the tines into the outer surface of the object of obstruction.
U.S. Pat. No. 963,965 to Emil H. Weber describes a device comprising a shank, a gripping device comprising spring fingers and a support therein carried by the shank. The said support includes a cylinder open at one end, with a plunger projected there, and closed at its other end. There are openings in said closed end, a plunger working in the cylinder, the fingers being fastened to the plunger and projecting divergingly therefrom through the openings in the closed end of the cylinder, and means connected to the plunger for operating the same. The said means enter the cylinder through its open end and passing through the tubular shank.
None of these prior art references describe the present invention.